Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 28, 1994                   TAG: 9411290033
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BEN BEAGLE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EL VIEJO PONDERS THE GIFT FOR THE WOMAN

The ground was hard underfoot some mornings and the old man worried about the Christmas presents as yet unimagined.

For years the old man had tried to buy the woman the right things for Christmas. But it all turned sour in the end.

If he bought clothes they did not fit. There was a coat that seemed lovely to him. And it fit. But the woman said the style was too young for her and she would not want to wear it to the Market of the Super Groceries.

Once he bought her a golden neck chain. The woman smiled sadly and said it was a good chain, but she did not wear it often.

Last year, he had bought her a heavy stone rabbit that pleased her and she put it in the backyard. But a man cannot buy a stone rabbit every year. For neighbors will jeer when a man has too many stone rabbits.

"Aiyee," the old man said to the woman. "It is the time of the year that brings us the Navidad. It is the time when a man does not know what to buy for his woman and he knows in his gut that what he buys will not be right. He could buy the diamond ring at the Store of the Discounts, but he knows it would not fit and that it might be deemed out of place at the Market of the Super Groceries."

"It is the time of the year when thee begin to whine about the time of the year," the woman said, her eyes dark and flashing with the memory of bungled gifts.

"Rest thyself, viejo, and do not worry about the gifts thee would give me. I could say that I would like many pesos to spend at the Store of the Small Goods, but thee would not listen."

"That is the way it is," the old man said. "Many people think that dinero will quiet the hunger we have in our souls. It is not true, mi querida. Los pesos cannot take the place of a gift from the heart - perhaps bought in the Store of the Discounts, although mi corazon fails me when I enter such places."

"Then put a lid on it, hombre," the woman said. "I do not wish to see thee hyperventilating in the Store of the Discounts because of me, Senor Scrooge."

And the old man walked the frozen ground alone and thought too much, which is the way to madness.

Perhaps, he thought, I will buy a stone squirrel, although he knew there was already such a thing in the bird bath in the side yard.